Aaron Smith Ordeal
Aaron Smith signed on board the “Zephyr” as first mate in April 1821. The ship left Kingston Jamaica for England on June 29th. Pirates attacked and plundered the ship off Cape Antonio, Cuba. Smith was the only person taken as the pirates wished to use him as a navigator.
They sailed to Rio Medias in Cuba where the pirates were greeted by the local magistrate. A golden rule about piracy is that it usually can only flourish where there is no law or where the authorities are in collusion, inefficient or apathetic.
Smith, being an upright Englishman, was shocked that these pirates were greeted in such a friendly fashion, but he was treated as one of the crew and allowed to join in the festivities. He forgot his troubles as he danced with Seraphina, a magistrate’s daughter. They began to strike up a relationship until the captain broke them up.
Smith was put to work making out the bills for the stolen goods the pirates were selling to the populace. He met with Seraphina again and the two of them promised each other that they would elope and marry. Smith was then called upon to dress the wounds of one of the crew who had been in a fight. He had no experience of this but gained a reputation as a healer.
It transpired that the quarrel was over news of a possible mutiny which caused the captain to fly into a rage and cut of the arms and legs of the supposed guilty man with a hatchet. Later, they set sail looking for prizes, but the captain attacked some of his crewmembers who he thought to be mutineers. They were all killed save one who was tortured to death by being stripped naked and hung in the sun and then hurled into the sea with a bar of pig iron tied around his neck.
Next, the pirates sighted a prize and the captain ordered Smith to board her. Smith tried to refuse as this would be an actual act of piracy on his part. As punishment, he was lashed to the mast and gunpowder set around his feet. This was lit and the flames set his clothes alight. Smith fainted but was released.
Before he could tend his own wounds, Smith had to look after the rest of the sick. Eventually the pirates captured their prize and returned to Rio Medias. There, Smith was requested to go ashore and tend to Seraphina’s father. He was not hurt, but Smith and the girl now planned their escape.
During this time the pirates took more prizes. So many that they had to pay off the authorities or risk imprisonment. Smith lived in fear of the sadism of the captain. His health suffered and he caught fever and he peppered his account with stories of the barbaric cruelty of the pirates as they took ships.
He had no opportunity to flee with Seraphina but he did meet a Spanish lady who was captured along with a Spanish officer. They all slept on mattresses in the same room and the lady made several attempts to seduce him during the nights that followed. Her husband discovered this and asked the captain to have Smith killed. The captain was a sadist but he was also no gentleman so he treated this request with amused contempt. Eventually the couple was ransomed.
Smith eventually escaped in a boat and arrived in Havana where he encountered the Spanish officer whose wife had tried to seduce him. He was immediately arrested and eventually handed over to the British. They treated him as a pirate and he was sent to London to stand trial at the Old Bailey on December 23, 1823 as a pirate. The trial attracted some excitement from the press.
Smith’s position looked grim until the jury was won over by the testimony of his sweetheart, Miss Sophia Knight, who wept in the witness box, oblivious to Smith’s adventures with Seraphina and the Spanish officer’s wife.
Smith was acquitted and married Sophia Knight that same day. That should have been the end, but in actual fact Smith had to stand trial again on July 14, 1829. Smith had gone back to sea and on landing in Antwerp was accused of commanding a pirate ship in 1822, which attacked Dutch shipping. Again Smith was acquitted.
And that should have been the end of it, but 21 years later, in 1850, Smith had to go to court because he was labeled as a pirate. He was described as a “burly seafaring man”. He argued his case and won again.
Smith died in Falmouth on October 21, 1862.